There are times when he looks like Eli Messiah, the second coming of great quarterbacks. The Eli who helped take down the undefeated Patriots in the Super Bowl 42. And then there is Bad Eli, the veteran quarterback who makes costly mistakes. Heck, both versions of Eli can appear not only in the same game, but in the same drive even. Remember the interception that Asante Samuel almost made in Super Bowl 42?

So which Eli are you going to get each week? Even his teammates were left to wonder. Lions safety C.C. Brown told the Detroit Free Press that trying to figure out which Eli you were going to get was an exercise in futility where the bad sometimes outweighs the good. Like your average episode of Saturday Night Live.

“You never know what you’re going to get with that guy,” Brown said Thursday. “You never know if he’s going to come in and make bad decisions; you don’t know if he’s just going to have one of them Peyton Manning games where he lights you up.”

So which Eli will show up on Sunday? There is no telling. The Giants have a rather favorable matchup against the Lions this week, but that does not seem to matter. Manning could certainly toss four touchdown passes in a huge win, but it would not be a surprise if he tossed four interceptions in a loss.

To borrow from one of the oldest sports cliches, that is why they play the games.

— Adam Rank

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